On user roles and fragmentation of the global network

The paper represents a critical analysis of interrelated processes: transformation of the user's role as direct subject of communication and fragmentation of the environment of interaction. The choice of the topic is conditioned by (1) the emergence of national network segments, which has recently been quite actively discussed in the context of blocking sites and VPN services as a measure for the protection of information security, and (2) users switching from the consumption of large media to isolated communities and platforms. The latter is associated, in addition to the loss of trust in major media, with deeper changes in the nature of information consumption and a change in the user's role: the network becomes a space of dialogue, where the very fact and quality of its continuation depends on the user's choice and his interpretation. According to the results of the study, it is shown that, firstly, due to the heterogeneity of the network in different segments and in different contexts, users may select messages untypical for other segments; secondly, interactive discourse predetermines the users’ choice from the array of information of those messages that seem «close» to users on the basis of their personal experience, psycho-emotional state, socio-cultural characteristics. The changes that a unit of information undergoes in a certain environment are determined by the characteristics of the environment, including sociocultural ones – they fill messages with symbolic content and determine their viability / potential to further dissemination in media space.